1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a facing material for a building and a method for connecting the same, and more particularly to a facing material for a roof, an outer wall or the like in a building such as a housing and a method for vertically and laterally connecting such facing materials together to form an outer face of a building such as a roof, an outer wall or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical facing material which has been conventionally used for an outer wall of a building is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 53386/1983. The conventional facing material includes a laterally elongated flat plate body which has water-tight engaging portions formed at the upper and lower edges thereof in a manner to inward project from the flat plate body. The outer face of a wall of a building is formed by connecting a plurality of such adjacent facing materials to one another in order in the downward direction through the engaging portions.
However, the conventional facing material has an important difficulty that it is substantially impossible to effectively carry out the lateral connection between the adjacent facing materials.
Thus, it would be highly desirable to develop a facing material which is capable of allowing the satisfied connection to be formed between laterally adjacent facing materials as well as between the vertically adjacent facing materials.